Your Mid-Year Financial Reset: Six Things to Review Now
The midpoint of the year is an ideal time to evaluate your financial progress and identify opportunities before year-end. For high-net-worth individuals and families, the months ahead often present the greatest opportunity to make proactive adjustments that can strengthen long-term outcomes.
We recommend reviewing the following six areas over the next few weeks.
1. Your Investment Strategy and Risk Posture
Market volatility has a way of revealing whether your portfolio reflects your true risk tolerance—or simply the confidence that comes from favorable market conditions.
Short-term market fluctuations are normal, and reacting emotionally to them is often costly. More important is determining whether your portfolio is designed to remain resilient across a variety of market environments, not just the current one.
If you're anticipating a significant liquidity event or experiencing a meaningful change in your financial situation, discuss it with your advisor before it occurs. Proactive planning often creates more options than reactive decision-making.
2. Your Planning Cadence
A mid-year review should be part of an ongoing planning process, not a standalone event.
We recommend a structured review cadence throughout the year, with each meeting focused on a specific area of your financial life: investment strategy, tax planning, estate and insurance considerations, and retirement planning. Major life events, anticipated liquidity events, or evolving goals should prompt additional conversations as needed.
If you're evaluating your current advisory relationship, consider whether this level of proactive planning is built into the service model. It should be.
3. Cash Flow and Withdrawal Strategy
Effective cash flow planning begins with understanding your income needs and then structuring withdrawals in the most tax-efficient manner possible.
That process includes evaluating which accounts to draw from, when to access them, and how portfolio construction can support after-tax income needs over time.
If you haven't revisited your withdrawal strategy since interest rates changed or your income needs evolved, now may be a good time to reassess.
4. Tax Planning Integrated with Portfolio Construction
Tax planning is often most effective when it occurs throughout the year rather than during a year-end scramble.
A proactive approach can help identify opportunities related to asset location, tax-loss harvesting, charitable giving, Roth conversions, and other planning strategies. Just as importantly, tax considerations should help inform portfolio construction from the outset.
Based on our Tax Drag simulation modeling, a $1 million portfolio held for 20 years could potentially retain an additional $250,000 to $380,000 through a more tax-efficient investment approach, depending on assumptions and individual circumstances.
5. Retirement Readiness
Retirement planning is not a one-time calculation. It is an ongoing process of aligning your current trajectory with future income needs and changing life circumstances.
Mid-year is a valuable opportunity to pressure-test your projections. Have spending assumptions changed? Has your retirement timeline shifted? Are contributions and savings targets still on track?
For those within five years of retirement, the importance of these questions increases significantly, as the opportunity to course correct becomes more limited.
6. Estate and Legacy Planning
As tax laws evolve and family circumstances change, an estate plan that was appropriate five years ago may no longer reflect your wishes or objectives.
At a minimum, review beneficiary designations, account titling, and estate planning documents to ensure they remain aligned. Major life events—including marriage, divorce, the birth of a child or grandchild, the loss of a loved one, or a significant change in assets—should trigger a comprehensive review.
Maintaining Alignment Throughout the Year
The purpose of a mid-year review is not to react to headlines or short-term market movements. It is to ensure ongoing alignment between your portfolio, financial plan, and long-term goals.
When investments, tax strategies, retirement planning, and estate considerations work together, you gain greater clarity and confidence in the decisions that shape your financial future.
If you'd like a second opinion on your current plan or would benefit from a comprehensive mid-year review, we'd welcome the opportunity to start a conversation.